Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Secretly Healthy Banana Bread {With Chocolate Chips}

Seems too good to be true, I know. So does the fact that I'm actually posting. HA.

Seriously though, I do want to post more. It's just, I'm on vacation right now. And there is no stand mixer here. And no food processor. And the gluten free flour aisle is pathetic. And I really just want to sit on the beach and think about chocolate chips all day anyways.

Seriously, I found my new favorite chocolate chips. I even dug the package out of the trash can so I could remember to tell you what kind they were. I guess they're called Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels. They're just... so big and beautiful. And they melt really well and are just overall delicious. I know, they probably have some dairy in them, but it won't hurt to have one or two, eh?

....or fifty.

Okay, so let me tell you about this banana bread.

I love it because it's really moist and... sticky? Does that sound weird? Well, I like it. And it's healthy! You can keep it even healthier by skipping the chocolate chips and maybe adding some chopped nuts and dried fruit if you want.

Or just add nuts, fruit, and chocolate chips. That works too.

Now, if it isn't your goal to make a healthy snack that you won't feel too guilty about when you down half a loaf for breakfast, you could always try my Nutella swirled banana bread. You could even try it with gluten-free flour! It's full of butter and sugar and all the goods, and since it is Fat Tuesday after all, I wouldn't blame you.

Seriously though, the one day I post something healthy-ish, it's Fat Tuesday. What is wrong with me.

Okay, so wanna hear the big secrets to this bread? Well, first of all there is no butter or oil. Instead there are bananas (um... duh) and unsweetened applesauce.

Seriously, I don't know why they usually sweeten it. I can hardly tell the difference.

The other secret is adding honey instead of sugar. I mean, supposedly that supposed to be better for you. You could also use maple syrup or something. Orrr.... you could just use the sugar. You'll probably survive.

Obviously, the final secret is using gluten free flour. I used white rice, but what I really wanted was oat flour. Like I say, this grocery store down here has no selection and there's not even a food processor to grind my own oats. It's a tough life my friends.

Anywho. You should definitely make this. And if you use oat flour, please leave a note in the comments to let me know how it turned out!!

Grease two 8 inch loaf pans or a 10 inch loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350º F. Mix together the eggs, honey, applesauce, and vanilla. Mix together the flour, salt, soda, powder, and cinnamon and add to the wet ingredients. Stir in the mashed bananas and mix well. Add in any mix-ins. Divide even in the pans and bake about 45 minutes for two loaves or an hour for one (until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs attatched). I cut each 8 inch loaf into about 12 pieces.

You can buy white rice flour in many grocery stores if they have a gluten free section. If they don't have it, you can check in any health food store. Also, most gluten free all-purpose flours are mostly made of rice and would work great in this recipe.

Made this Last week.. I am really Picky and I really enjoyed it.. My boyfriend and Family did as well. I am actually making it again tonight.. I am going to try making muffins out of them.. I am also going to try to swirl Nutella in one or 2 to see how it comes out.. Oh! and I made it with Oat Flour as recommended and Honey for sweetener

I tried this today. I used homemade pear butter (just like apple sauce) instead of apple sauce because I ran out of it. I did not use any add ons (nuts or chocolate chips) and also used half agave nectar and half regular honey just to finish it up. It turned out super! I love the texture. It was not dry because of the rice flour. Thanks for sharing.

Need suggestions - I made muffins - they rose beautifully, but I had no idea how long to bake, so kept checking them - 10 min, then each 5 min thereafter. They sank horribly when I took them out at 35 min. Does anyone think that opening the oven (and letting the temp drop so many times) could be the culprit? They did seem done after 35 min, so maybe I should just try again, and not open it until 35 min?

I never eat before these kind of choco chip bread with added flavor of Banana. i think this bread is especially made for those who do daily workouts in Gym. But i take it only for my taste and chocolate is my weakness so i can't live without eating it.dry fruit chocolate hampers

I made this today - really good! It was perfectly moist, just the way it should be in my opinion.

I would love to try next time using oat flour, but I only had boring whole wheat flour. It worked very well though! I also only used half the amount of honey and added an additional 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar. For someone with a raging sweet tooth, it was a good amount (though more sugar would have been delicious too).

Also I only had 2 small brown bananas so I supplemented the rest of the 1.5 cups with pumpkin puree... yum!

I'll definitely be making this again soon, except with oat flour, chocolate chips, and I'll keep the pumpkin puree addition :)

This is wonderful! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I substituted a couple ingredients: used pure maple syrup instead of honey and only used 1/4 c., also used plain Greek yogurt instead of applesauce and to top off all those yummy, healthy ingredients I added about 1 c. of Enjoy Life brand mini choc chips and baked them as muffins instead since their easier to grab on the go. Don't hesitate to try this recipe, just go make it right now! :)

I just made this recipe for the first time. I doubled up on everything in order to make 2 large loaves, one of which will be sent to California in a care package for my daughter/college student's care package. I used 3 cups of brown rice flour and 1 cup of coconut flour. Everything else, I did as you said. It's baking now. I'll let you know the outcome!

The verdict: Absolutely friggin delicious. It's light, fluffy, just sweet enough and not too sweet. I adore this recipe and it will be printed. In my world, when I use precious and expensive ink to print a recipe; that means it's beyond delicious. I will share your site and your recipe. And I only tasted the part of the cake that stuck to the dish while it was still warm :) YUMMMMM. And a big, fat THANK YOU!

Hi! I want to make this tomorrow, cause i wanna use up some very ripe bananas i have. I don't think I have applesauce here in Brazil and I know I could use oil instead, but how much of it? Can anyone help? Thank u! xx

I made this last night, with a few alterations inspired by a couple other recipes. I replaced the applesauce with 1/2 cup natural peanut butter and 1/4 cup milk, and I used 3 medium bananas and only mashed them into chunks, not smooth, so there would be chunks of banana in the bread. Oh, and I used oat flour, and no mix-ins. It was really good! Thanks for the recipe. :) I've seriously made your Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes like every day for a week. And sometimes for supper. They're AMAZING!

This is great! I made it with 3 bananas and a mix of buckwheat and almond flour and it came out perfect!I want to make it again today, but try it without eggs since I can't eat them. What do you think how it will come out?Thank you.

Mine didn't cook all the way through - I subbed flax eggs for real eggs and the whole thing came out pretty mushy. Nonetheless delicious... And it was all eaten anyways... But definitely underdone. I've never had a problem subbing flax eggs in quick breads before so I'm wondering if I had added too much banana (I eyeballed) to hold together properly. Giving it another go today being more careful with measurements.

Hi everyone, I'm Alexandra! I made something very similar today! It tasted good but it was also a bit dry!! I used 1/4th cup applesauce and 1 TBS of oil. I'm guessing this was my problem but I don't know how much more to put! Any suggestions? Many thanks! :)

I threw these in the oven just now. I used 1/2 cup more mashed banana and 1/2 cup less applesauce.. also used xylitol as the sweetener. Can't wait to see how they come out :) The batter sure tasted amazing.

I made mine exactly like the recipe says, except I used yoghurt instead of applesauce and no add-ins. I baked it in one tin for 45 minutes and it came out so mushy :( it tastes amazing but the texture is like an undone cake, too moist. What did I do wrong ?? The flavour is amazing though!